Without fail, Bess finds himself being compared to former Dolphins receiver Wes Welker, who is now with the New England Patriots, because of their similar size and ability. Welker has benefited significantly as New England’s slot receiver from all of the attention paid to Randy Moss on the outside, so it stands to reason that the 6-foot-4, 230-pound Marshall will have a similar effect on Bess.
“You can’t double team everybody. If they double team him somebody else is going to have the opportunity to win one-on-one,” said Bess, who was second in the league among receivers behind only Steve Smith of the New York Giants in third-down conversions last year with 35. “If they single him up, he’s a big threat. He’s going to excel and right now we’ve just got to continue working and us as a group, we’re all going to make each other better, which makes the offense better and then hopefully we’ll be winning ballgames.”
In terms of speed, Bess isn’t thought of as a burner that can get behind the best defensive backs like Welker can, but he feels that his speed is a little underrated. His quickness has not come into question and is one of the reasons he has been Miami’s punt returner for the most part, because he gets up the field fast and can make the first person miss. Last season, Bess returned 28 punts or 209 yards.
There is one clear difference between the role Bess will play in Miami’s offense and the role Welker plays for New England and that has to do with Bess not being pigeon-holed into just being a slot receiver. Head Coach Tony Sparano always has touted Bess’ work ethic and his versatility, so he and offensive coordinator Dan Henning have no reservations about sending Bess out in two receiver sets as the guy lined up opposite Marshall on occasion.
“I think that Davone can go out there and he can play in regular down and distance situations in a regular offense. I think we’re confident that he can do that,” Sparano said. “He’s very good at this other role that he has; like, not kind of okay, he’s pretty good at this role. He’s a creative guy in there and he’s a guy that – he kind of demands attention in there. I think people have tried to press him at different times, double him at different times. So, he’s good at that job. He works his tail off to get better at some of the things that maybe he’s not, and I wouldn’t take it for granted a whole lot, but he can go out there and he can play on 1st and 2nd.”
During his three years at the University of Hawaii in June Jones’ Run-and-Shoot offense, Bess couldn’t help but catch a ton of passes – and that didn’t count the thousands of balls he caught on his own from the Jugs machine. His 293 receptions for 3,610 yards opened a lot of eyes and he surpassed 1,000 receiving yards all three seasons, but he had to adjust to a new system in Miami.
“Whenever you have one, two, three years in the same system going over the same plays and seeing the same different looks, you have no choice but to get better,” Bess said. “All you can do is look forward and me personally, I know what to expect and now I just want to try to perfect it and get better week in and week out.”
With that approach, he can claim to share something else in common with Marshall – the tireless pursuit of perfection.
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